Abdullahi Madkeer

DMC Radio

January 24, 2003, in Baidoa, Somalia

Madkeer, a journalist with DMC Radio, was accidentally shot in the stomach by members of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) militia while covering the reopening of Baidoa Airport in the southwest of the country, according to the Somali Journalists' Network (SOJON) and the Action Alert Group, a press freedom organization. He was taken to a hospital and died that day after doctors refused to operate on him because he was HIV positive.

The shooting occurred while militia belonging to the RRA faction of Shaykh Adan Madobe fired on the airport crowd to drive them back from an aircraft with a cargo of the narcotic khat. The airport had just reopened after months of war between rival RRA factions in the region.

SOJON quoted Madkeer's father as saying that there has been no investigation into his son's death because of civil war and lawlessness in Baidoa Region. According to SOJON, Madkeer's death has left his family destitute.

Madkeer's station, DMC Radio, has since been forced to close after local fighters from RRA factions requisitioned the stations' offices.